Saturday Night Open Thread

Well that was a fun afternoon, wasn’t it? Vintage performance by the offense, with a ton of deep counts and lots of extra base hit. Phil Hughes was pretty good as well. Can’t wait to see his stuff play up out of the bullpen next week. /wrists

Anyway, the weather’s nice, so it’s a great night to head out and do whatever the kids do these days. Maybe grab some dinner, catch a movie, hang out with friends, all sorts of stuff. In the meantime, use this thread to talk about whatever your heart desires. Have at it.

per girardi, garcia will miss start tomorrow with cut on finger and Burnett will go. I guess this means Hughes will stay in as well for the moment??

nick

whoops see some have got it already, thanks.

MikeD

So begins an interesting few weeks where everyone of the Yankees starters, except AJ, will have a minor injury that forces them to miss a start.

Kidding, of course, unless it actually happens.

http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/ Steve S.

The only things that get injured when AJ’s pitching are TV sets.

fitz

keep hughes as starter. make burnett most expensive long man ever. send noesi down to minors wen arod comes back. consider calling up montero in place of cervelli as backup catcher and sometimes DH

http://www.twitter.com/james_dasilva James d.

The Maris-Mantle tracker is great for comparing how their season was against a run-of-the-mill HR chase like this year. 45 for each in game 117, and Grandy and Bautista at 33 this year. No knock on today’s guys, just interesting to see the gap.

Also, is it just me, or did the Yanks play a lot of doubleheaders that year?

Andrew518

They used to play a lot of double headers period back in the day. My uncle tells me great stories…

Bud Selig says that the fans don’t want them today.

He’s right, what fan would want to see two games for the price of one…I’d rather get a sharp stick in the eye.

https://twitter.com/TheRealJeromeS Jerome S.

Doubleheaders were extremely common until the seventies. More off-days.

Then it became (more) about the money, and it made a lot more sense if almost every baseball game was at primetime.

Andrew518

I was actually fortunate enough to get to go to two…well er…one and half.

They had one back in 95′ I went with my Grandmother, she decided it was time to go half way through the second game, when Nana said it was time to go, it was time to go, the only game I’ve ever left early.

There was also one a few years back, maybe 06 or 07 an end of season series against Orioles. At the stadium for like 8 1/2 hours. Absoulutely amazing experience.

OldYanksFan

Yup… I went to quite a few… including the one against Cleveland where Murcer hit 4 HRs in a row (June 24, 1970).

Sunday’s were double-header day. I really can’t remember, but I think there were 2 a month or so.

Jimmy McNulty

Would leaving them all in the rotation keeping CC on regular rest and using this to skip Bart and Freddy to keep them fresh be a viable option? Hughes NEEDS to stay in the rotation he NEEDS to develop the stamina back, he NEEDS to learn how to use all of his pitches to get outs.

https://twitter.com/TheRealJeromeS Jerome S.

While I do actually hope that Hughes is great out of the pen and the Yankees win a shitload more games and a championship and all that jazz, a small part of me kind of wishes he would suck.
Then we’d put a stop to this “stuff plays well out of the pen” nonsense.

Pat D

Weather great? I got a pretty good storm about 45 minutes to an hour ago in eastern PA.

I don’t think the kids are coying Bryce Harper. At eleven or twelve, they’re focused on MLB players and there’s a good chance they barely know who he is.

It’s more a reminder of how damn young Harper is. He signed as a 17 year-old, which means he was only five years himself removed from Little League. He’s doing what he’s been doing all his “long” life. That’s why he has the war paint. He’s barely older than the kids in the LL WS.

Andrew518

I’ve noticed that Harper has dropped it since entering pro’s, Sure he would take considerable heat at MLB level. I personally came from a fairly strict, in the sense of what “is” and what “isn’t” baseball upbringing. My high school coaches would have never allowed it. Then again I was no Bryce Harper.

YankeesJunkie

This may have been Hughes’ best start in over a year. He used all three of his pitches and got strikes with them, he pounded the zone, and maintained velocity throughout the game. This is type of pitcher that Hughes can be on a more regular basis and hopefully he comes out his next start does the same because it would be a shame to see him in the pen.

http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/ Steve S.

Yeah, anyone who’s watched their past few starts knows that Phil is pitching better than AJ is right now. The Yanks aren’t stupid, so I have to assume they know it too. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Garcia thing is completely made up, just to buy time. They really don’t want to have to make this decision right now.

YankeesJunkie

I think Hughes curtailing on that cutter has made his fastball more effective and allowed him to concentrate on working with the curveball and change. Today’s start was just a Hughesgasm for me though considering how big of a start it was for him.

JobaWockeeZ

If Burnett is starting over Hughes I’m seriously going to kill a puppy regardless of what the Yankees can do no wrong crowd says. If the Yankees are going all in to win then Hughes has to start.

YankeesJunkie

While Hughes has put up a couple great starts right now he probably is still on the outside looking in on the playoff rotation. CC is an automatic, if Colon and Garcia stay healthy they will be good fits in the playoff rotation as they both have that veteran experience, and right now Nova is number 4. Even though Hughes is number 5 I like his stuff much better than Nova for the fact that his stuff is not only better, but he can generate strike outs. However, this won’t make or break the team. Though the fact that Burnett is not one of the five best starting pitchers on the Yankees is a fact that should be realized sooner than later this year and it may be the wake up call for Burnett in 2012.

http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/ Steve S.

I’m not sure Garcia gets the nod if one of Hughes/Burnett is pitching well. I think the only givens are CC/Nova/Colon and Nova may very well be the Game 2 starter.

Jake H

I was really impressed with Phil’s change up. He threw it as much as his cutter and I thought it looked pretty good after the first few.

Mattchu12

Ideas on what the bench will be when A-Rod gets back and Montero is called up?

I can’t imagine them demoting Nunez. He has been too good. Same with Chavy. And we won’t have a backup outfielder if we cut Jones (though I suppose you could throw Nunez out there if the stadium was on fire). I know Cervelli seems like the obvious choice, but I’d like to have Montero DHing full-time, and that would leave us without a catcher on the bench.

Obviously, Posada only goes if he chooses to. Who is getting cut?

Jorge

Hector Noesi.

http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/ Steve S.

This, and that’s the move to make room for Alex. There’s still no room for Montero until Sept 1.

MikeD

They’ll only have to send one player down for about two weeks before rosters expand. It will be one of the bullpen arms, with Noesi the likely victim since he’s the least used, and either Hughes or AJ will be in the pen.

No way it’s Nunez. He fills too many infield positions, and can even be used in the OF in a pinch.

The could send Cervelli down. If Martin was to be injured while Montero is DHing, they could still move Montero into catcher and just lose the DH. Not optimal, but it’s unlikely to happen over a two week period. Jorge can still catch if need be, serving as another back-up. I don’t see this happening, though.

Bottom line is the reason Montero is still in AAA is there is no clear position for him to play daily, so they’re letting him play in AAA for now. Montero also hasn’t done anything to force the Yankees hand. If he continued hitting in AAA this year as he finished the second half of 2010, he’d have been up on the MLB roster months ago.

Jesus is coming. I don’t know if that’s this week or in a couple weeks, but he’s almost here.

Sarah

How is Seattle leading 3-0 over Boston in the bottom of the 1st? I hope this Josh Beckett sticks around for the rest of the year!

Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

HAHAHAHAHAHA 5-0 M’s against Beckett

wow

why can’t we do that against Beckett?

Brian S.

Yeah what the fuck. Maybe because we don’t face him in an extreme hitters park like Safeco Field…..oh wait.

Winston Smith

Hold on to this lead, King Felix. Beat the Sox.

Pat D

God, I fucking hate anything involving the Little League World Series.

I guess I’m too old now, but when I played from ages 7-14, not only do I not remember any kids I played with or against hot-dogging during games, I also don’t remember any coaches, save one team’s, that would tolerate it.

Now we’ve the got the generations of kids firmly raised on SportsCenter highlights who are fucking admiring home runs for as long as Carlos Guillen did and who pound their chests after hitting a triple. It’s enough to make you fucking puke.

Shit, I had a younger teammate of mine who would do stupid shit like that in practices when we scrimmaged. I told him repeatedly to stop. He didn’t listen. Then during a practice when 7 or 8 of us would shag flyballs while another kid took BP, there was a ball that was hit in between us. He was in position to catch it, but I ran over his ass and caught the ball myself. As I helped him up, I asked him if he knew why I did that. He said yes and sure enough he didn’t pull that shit again.

Man, I’d like to do that to these fucking kids today.

http://bleedingyankeeblue.com Jesse

King Felix has got to hold this lead 5-0 should be money in the bank for him. Idgaf what offense he’s pitching against.

nick

what the hell was up with that call? i thought at first he dropped it, but he obviously didnt

nick

ok i cant hear nesn so i guess he was out. dont know why francona is so angry. one hell of a throw by ichiro

Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

What happened?

Tex sucks

Ellsbury called safe at first. Ump said he dropped the ball. Then all the umps got together and reversed it.

Replay showed he never dropped the ball. GJ umps.

Tex sucks

Called safe at home***

Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

Yeah I just turned the game on and saw the replay. fucking insane play.

Tex sucks

Fuckin Ichiro with a cannon

Cy Pettitte

that play was fucking nuts. Ichiro with an amazing throw and the Bard holds onto it after getting a knee straight to the head.

nick

when i saw that fly ball i thought god it would be awesome to see ichiro gun him down at the plate.

Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

haha the Mariner’s broadcast didn’t even notice that Gutierrez was safe…